Lifeboat Foundation

SpaceX has unveiled the Raptor 3 engine, marking significant advancements in thrust, specific impulse, and mass efficiency compared to previous versions. The Raptor 3 boasts a thrust of 280 tf, a specific impulse of 350s, and an engine mass of 1,525 kg. The SpaceX Raptor 3 engine has potential to exceed 300 tons of thrust in future iterations, emphasizing ongoing efforts to improve efficiency.

Raptor 3 is 36% lighter than Raptor 1. It has 51% more thrust at sea level versus raptor 1. Raptor 3 is 7% lighter than Raptor 2. It has 21% more thrust at sea level versus raptor 2. Elon Musk indicates that Raptor could get another 8–10% more thrust.

Raptor 3 has 2.75 million newtons of thrust versus 2.26 million newtons for the Raptor 2. 33 Raptor 3 engines would provide 90.75 million newtons of thrust for a 33 engine super heavy booster. 35 Raptor 3 engines would provide 96.3 million newtons of thrust for a 35 engine super heavy booster.

Chevron Corp. announced on Friday that it will also move its headquarters from California to Texas, just weeks after Elon Musk announced that SpaceX and X were fleeing for the Lone Star State.

The news came as the company reported its second-quarter earnings on Friday, which fell far short of profit expectations.

According to the company, Chevron’s headquarters will move from San Ramon, California, to Houston, Texas.

It looks like NASA officials might be seeing the writing on the wall for the very troubled Boeing Starliner, which has marooned two astronauts up in space for almost two months due to technical issues.

An unnamed “informed” source told Ars Technica that there’s a greater than 50 percent probability that the stranded astronauts will end up leaving the International Space Station on a SpaceX Dragon capsule, with another unnamed person telling the news outlet that the scenario is highly likely.

NASA officials are more cagey about what’s happening on the record, a marked contrast from previous weeks when they expressed confidence in the Starliner’s ability to safely bring back the astronauts.

This morning, SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket on a resupply mission to the International Space Station.

It looks like Elon is about to rescue two people Boeing left stranded in outer space. Crew Dragon’s capacity will likely be increased from 4 to 6 people as the solution to this problem.

SpaceX is actively working on a plan to fly Starliner’s crew home.

NASA’s Crew Flight Test astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, docked at the ISS since June 6.

Elon Musk doesn’t expect the next Starship test flight to occur before late August.

Crew-9 will be the first crewed launch on a Falcon 9 rocket after one of the vehicles experienced a rare failure in July.

Imagine a crew of astronauts headed to Mars. About 140 million miles away from Earth, they discover their spacecraft has a cracked O-ring. But instead of relying on a dwindling cache of spare parts, what if they could simply fabricate any part they needed on demand?

A team of Berkeley researchers, led by Ph.D. student Taylor Waddell, may have taken a giant leap toward making this option a reality. On June 8, they sent their 3D printing technology to space for the first time as part of the Virgin Galactic 7 mission.

Their next-generation microgravity printer—dubbed SpaceCAL—spent 140 seconds in suborbital space while aboard the VSS Unity space plane. In that short time span, it autonomously printed and post-processed a total of four test parts, including space shuttles and benchy figurines from a liquid plastic called PEGDA.